Are rig hours reversable?


Most of us burn in our rigs differently, but the general consensus whether it be speakers, ICs, power cords, electronics (the whole nine)is there is a positive ratio between hours played and sound quality. Is there a ratio for the reverse? How long can a rig go into hibernation without affecting all the positives of an active listening life? Obviously, there are differences between ICs, CDPs,power conditioners etc, but I'd love to hear your take from what you have read or from your experiences, and what you do to keep your rig alive when you're a way for a trip around the world or the like. thanks in advance.
128x128warrenh

Showing 1 response by mulveling

If there was always a positive effect on SQ going forward, then we wouldn't have such a robust 2nd hand market for used gear :P

When you don't like gear at first, and later you do, it's often attributed to burn-in. When you do like gear at first, and later you don't, it seems you were just "ready to try something different".

I'm not saying that burn-in works in reverse, it's just that I think the whole thing is way overblown when it comes to electronics. I had one tech tell me "these caps will sound better with burn-in" after he'd wired them so egregiously WRONG that the amp had a 6dB/octave low frequency rolloff starting all the way up at 1kHz!! Nope, I really don't think burn-in is gonna help much there...

For what it's worth I do believe (and have observed) that break-in can be significant with new speakers & headphones, and to a lesser extent cartridges. It may exist for electronics too, but it's far less significant in my experience.